|
|
Donate via PayPal.
Use the button above. It's a secure
and easy way to donate to this
important town non-profit, grassroots,
informational organization.
Donations, unfortunately, are
not tax deductible. Thank you
for your support.
Or send a personal check.
If you prefer, send a check made out to WeLoveMillburn, Inc., Treasurer, 25 Stewart Road, Short Hills, NJ 07078.
Your local United Way serves needs right here in Millburn/Short Hills. Give today. www.unitedwayofmillburn.org.
WeLoveMillburn.com supports the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. Specify "2008 Hurricane Season Relief". Contribute at our local American Red Cross chapter, 389 Millburn Ave., Short Hills, NJ 07078 (973-379-4198) or the American Red Cross, P. O. Box 37243, Washington, DC 20013 (1-800-RED-CROSS). Text "Give" to 2Help (24357) to donate $5. Internet users can make a secure online contribution at www.redcross.org.
|
|
|
Proposed Millburn Downtown Redevelopment Plan
presented to the Planning Board on June 4, 2008.
June 9,2008
At this point, members of the WeLoveMillburn Revelopment Plan are merely reporting on what they see and hear at the open public meetings. As they gather more information and do their research, they will eventually come to a conclusion and make a formal recommendation to fellow residents.
As described by Township hired planners Wallace, Roberts & Todd, the plan includes a 30,000 square foot two story Town Hall to be erected on the site of the current Public Works building. The waste collection area would be reconfigured as a two level parking garage, and a street would run parallel to the train tracks behind this area to allow greater access.
The old Town Hall site would be used for a new five story structure containing one level of retail space and four levels of residential units wrapped around a multi-level parking facility. This area also includes an outdoor civic space. This outdoor space and the adjacent reconfigured street area could be closed off for street festivals and other town events.
An additional structure with four stories of residential space would be located on the new Town Hall side of Essex Street. Relocation alternatives for the Department of Public Works have not been determined. Lot 2 by Essex and Lackawanna would contain four stories of residential space with a small corner area for retail erected along with another parking facility (3 1/2 levels). This parking facility could be enlarged to include parking for commuters.
It is estimated that the plan would increase school population by 20 students. It is also estimated to add 80 new jobs and 112 indirect jobs.
The building period would be 3 years. The time to complete the project from beginning to end would be approximately 4 years. The estimated cost of the project is $76.6 million of which $25 million is for public amenities. This does not include the cost of moving the Department of Public Works which is estimated at $1.2 million. The project when completed is estimated to have an assessed value of $121 million.
The plan includes:
- 50,000 square feet of new retail space (current inventory is 300,000 square feet) 129 residential units at market price
- 47 affordable housing units
- 880 parking garage spaces
- 123 new street parking spaces
- 136 new parking spaces not required by development
Another presentation of the proposed redevelopment plan has been scheduled for June 18, 2008 at Hartshorn School. The public will be able to ask questions at this meeting.
The presentation is also available at: http://www.twp.millburn.nj.us/content/view/134/58/ Questions about the plan can be posted at this site.
WeLoveMillburn will be reviewing the proposed plan and presenting its findings on our website once all the information is in and research has been conducted.
The Township Committee has reverted to calling their investigation of the downtown area the Downtown Revitalization Plan rather than a Redevelopment Plan. They are now calling it a Revitalization Plan because it has not been determined whether they have the legal right based on State statutes to conduct a formal Redevelopment Plan. They did authorize at a previous township meeting to have the Planning Board hire a professional planner to look into what can and what can't be done downtown.
The Township Committee has gone through several stages regarding this issue. They have already canceled resolution #1 and introduced resolution #2 with a new and smaller list of properties in the downtown area excluding 425 homes from the study.
At the June 6th Township Committee meeting, the Township Committee adopted a resolution to modify the "area of needs study". Basically most of the private homes in the downtown area were removed from future plans. The Township Committee said that the Planning Board was about to hire a planner after reviewing credentials and interviewing several professional planners.
On June 14th, there was a public hearing conducted by the Mayor and the head of the Planning Board, Michael Gorman. It was held at the Millburn Public Library. The guest speaker was a real estate re-development attorney and expert in the field Robert S. Goldsmith of the law firm Greenbaum Rowe Smith & Davis. He spent a lot of his speaking time trying to explain why the state Local Redevelopment and Housing Law (LRHL), that includes the option of using eminent domain, is needed for an efficient redevelopment plan. This angered many residents and at one point former Mayor McDermott stood up during the Q&A session and said he would never be a part of a plan that allowed eminent domain to private homes whether they were in the downtown area or not.
Then again, at the regularly scheduled Township meeting held on June 20th, four or five residents asked the Township Committee to do away with eminent domain in any future downtown plan. One resident also asked, as did others at the open meeting held at the Library on June 14th, that the Township totally rescind the resolution that deals with looking into the downtown area.
The Mayor, speaking on behalf of the group of 5 committee members, promised that they are meeting this week as a group to discuss next steps and further modifications in their downtown revitalization plan. Mayor Baer promised, along with others on the committee, that they wouldn't use eminent domain but that they do need to use the LRHL law to do a better job in any new downtown plan. He stated that only through the use of the LRHL law could they take land, even if it is municipal property, and sell it to developers.
The Mayor also stated that the Planning Board would be announcing their choice and the hiring of a Planner to study the downtown area at the Planning Board meeting scheduled for June 21st.
previous stories on this issue
WeLoveMillburn, Inc. is a non-profit, grassroots, informational organization made up of involved residents. This mission, as we have stated on our website, is to help all residents to be better informed about the issues that affect our community. We do this in a positive spirit of informing one another about what is happening, what is not happening and what is possible. We are all neighbors and this is our town. WeLoveMillburn.com
|
